New Liberal Highlight: Tyler Laferriere-Holloway, Los Angeles

Member Highlight – Tyler Laferriere-Holloway

Tyler Laferriere-Holloway is the current chapter lead of the LA New Liberals. Tyler succeeded to chapter leadership in 2023. In his role as chapter lead, Tyler is guiding the production of the “Freedom, Agency, and Abundance: Defining New Liberalism” panel series, a New Liberal Regional action project-funded endeavor.

A graduate of Gonzaga University and Washington State University, Tyler has lived in Los Angeles for almost seven years with his husband Travis. Currently a vice president for a wealth management and investment advisory firm, Tyler previously spent over three years as a research economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. Before assuming leadership of the LA New Liberals, Tyler had been a zone director and later chair of his local neighborhood council, a co-founder of the council’s first renters’ committee, and three years president of the LA chapter of the National Association for Business Economics.

How did you get involved with the Center for New Liberalism?

I first encountered the Center for New Liberalism when it was still the Neoliberal Project. A friend forwarded me the Twitter account, and after following I did a little digging and found there was an LA chapter. I joined one of the first chapter Zoom meetings in 2020 but later fell off due to other commitments. However, the previous chapter lead, Alix, was persistent in reaching out, and I attended an event at his apartment in September 2022 and was immediately hooked by the people and views I encountered. I joined as a dues-paying member soon afterward.

What is your Defining liberalism series, and what does liberalism mean to you?

“Freedom, Agency, and Abundance: Defining New Liberalism” is a series of six panel conversations taking place during the first half of 2023. The purpose of the series is to better define what New Liberalism is, how it is liberal, why it is new, and how it is distinct from other elements of center left and Democratic politics. The series is focused on developing an understanding of how the values and philosophy of New Liberalism should be implemented in addressing the political challenges of the Greater LA region.

I felt compelled to recommend this as a regional action project because I felt we needed both a more differentiated elevator pitch for our organization but also to work through the underlying philosophy that went a bit deeper, and a bit more fundamental, than the “What We Believe” statements, which are just a list of policy positions. As such, the first panel discussion was a broader conversation on the New Liberal ethos and brand, while the following five conversations are specific to the following policy areas: housing, mobility, digitization and automation, entrepreneurship, and governance reform.

For me, liberalism is definitionally anchored in human freedom and demands that all rightly constructed political efforts be oriented toward expanding liberty. I also think liberalism is a culture, one that prizes individual agency, markets, participation, and dialogue, both spoken and written. It is a set of values and dispositions that must be taught repeatedly and practiced continuously. As Friedrich A. Hayek said, “If old truths are to retain their hold on men’s minds, they must be restated in the language and concepts of successive generations.” Finally, I think liberalism is – or ought to be – pragmatic and self-limiting in its spirit and application; content in reformism, not revolution; satisfied in opening opportunities, not engineering outcomes; and fulfilled by empowering each person to realize their own utopia, not imposing paradise from above.